🔑 Big News: Warehouse for Redmond’s Forge LEGO Museum in Arklow
This week’s biggest development has to be the acquisition of the warehouse in Arklow, which will become the heart of Redmond’s Forge LEGO Museum. After months of planning, bidding, and site visits, we finally got the keys and officially took possession.
We’ve already started laying out the space, shelving, display tables, brick pits, storage zones. The plan is to gradually convert it into a public museum + creative space, with rotating exhibits, workshops, and a vault of rare sets. In short: the dream is becoming real.
Some early teaser footage and walkthroughs are already live online if you want to peek behind the curtain.
This warehouse is a milestone for Redmond’s Forge, it means all the hauls and vintage sets we’ve been accumulating will finally have a proper home. Expect more announcements in coming weeks as we open parts of the space to visitors.
📅 Dublin Brick Con & Ireland LEGO Event News
Dublin Brick Con 2025 – 11th–12th October 2025
The much-anticipated Dublin Brick Con took place over the weekend in the National Basketball Arena, Tallaght.
We had a strong presence, our display pieces, custom builds, and interactive stations drew a steady crowd. Highlights included speed-build challenges, master-builder demos, and the “brick pit” where kids (and big kids) dived into tubs of loose bricks. The buzz was real, attendance was solid, and many new fans discovered Redmond’s Forge through our booth.
One particularly fun moment: a Ninjago build (seen in social media) that caught a lot of eyeballs.
It was also great to network with other Irish AFOL (Adult Fans of LEGO) groups, swap chats, and scout for potential collaborations, including anyone who throws out their set boxes – please I’ll gladly take them, or buy them.
Other Ireland LEGO News
- Brick.ie, the Irish AFOL association, had heavy involvement throughout the con, bringing custom models and helping coordinate exhibits.
- Online chatter suggests this iteration of Brick Con was one of the more tightly run and well-attended shows in recent years.
🧱 Hauls & Acquisitions (7–12 October)
Here’s what landed in the Forge vault this week:
7 October
- Ballyfermot €150 for 3 crates, including Helm’s Deep.
Sets included: 7208 LEGO City, 7288 LEGO City, 7641 LEGO City, 9469 LEGO The Lord of the Rings, 9474 The Lord of the Rings (Helm’s Deep), Oxford COBRA Military Force NCM 35000, plus the LEGO Minifigure Ultimate Sticker Collection. - Finglas (Olga) 2 crates (2x½ of an “orange crate,” with ½ moved to a red crate).
These were nice pickups, especially the Helm’s Deep piece. It gives us a strong build set and display potential early on.
8 October
- Drogheda €70 for a big Minecraft LEGO box. Also obtained a Home Alone House set and also 100 LEGO City sets for children to be able to repeatably build.
Those cube-style, pixelated builds will slot nicely into a themed display. Home Alone is always a fan favourite.
10 October
- Carlow for a total spend: €340 for about 45 kg of LEGO, plus a box of vintage LEGO (System, Basic, Classic Space).
That’s a hefty haul. The weight alone suggests many bulk bricks, perfect for building displays, dioramas, and interactive pits. The vintage box is gold, especially for classic LEGO collectors.
11–12 October
- The Dublin Brick Con haul: as expected, we loaded up on vendor deals, spare parts, custom elements, signed sets, extra bricks, and a few exclusive sets. These will go straight into the museum pipeline.
🔍 Builds, Reviews & What We Did
Over the week, we were hands-on in multiple areas:
- Setup in Arklow warehouse – assembling shelving units, power, lighting, layout zones.
- Repair & cataloguing – sorting the new hauls by set number, theme, completeness. Some bricks required cleaning or minor repair (stud polish, re-adhesion).
- Display test builds – small mockups and teaser dioramas to see how sets will look in display cases.
- Reviewing recent sets – though the major release window is slightly quieter, we continued reviewing modular buildings, Creator Expert sets, and smaller polybags released this autumn. (I’ll drop a full review digest in a separate post.)
One review that stood out: we re-visited the Helm’s Deep set (from the Ballyfermot haul) under new lighting setups in the warehouse, it still holds up beautifully.
🌐 Around the LEGO World (7–13 Oct)
Though this week wasn’t packed with blockbuster LEGO announcements, a few items deserve mention:
- The official reveal of LEGO’s plans for future theme expansions continues to generate buzz. Fans speculate more in the area of licensed IPs, sustainable bricks, and “play + display” crossover sets.
- On social media, LEGO’s fan-art and MOC (My Own Creation) competitions are receiving more corporate attention, with LEGO offering grants or support to successful builders.
- The collectible / investment side is also heating up: several rare sets (especially limited editions) are climbing in price on secondary markets, drawing renewed interest from adult collectors and investors.
While nothing earth-shattering broke this week, the overall momentum in the LEGO fan world remains strong.
✅ Reflections & What’s Next
Reflections:
- Securing the Arklow warehouse is a turning point. What used to be dreams and sketches is now a physical location with potential.
- Dublin Brick Con validated our community presence, people are excited for what Redmond’s Forge will become.
- The hauls this week, especially the bulk lot from Carlow, give us a stock base we’ve long needed.
What’s Next:
- In the coming week(s), expect a formal “museum opening teaser”, perhaps open days or guided tours in small batches.
- We’ll continue digitizing the catalog: photographing each set, verifying inventory, and preparing display placards.
- More set reviews will go live, including some deeper dives into LEGO’s 2026 roadmap (once more announcements roll).
- A postmortem of Brick Con: what went well, what we’ll adjust for next year, and how we can better integrate the museum side.
